A/N: Hope you like it!

Maybe this was a mistake.

Hermione chewed her bottom lip in a moment of doubt, the winds rippling through her curly hair and enveloping her body as she hugged her cloak tighter, staring up at the tall, wrought-iron gate in her path. She'd been there once before of course, at the height of the war. Stomach clenching at the memory, it was all she could do to remind herself why she'd come all this way.

The moment her classes for the day had ended, she had Floo'd into The Leaky Cauldron and then taken the Knight Bus all the way to Wiltshire. Never in her life had she imagined she would ever have had a reason to return, not after the atrocities that she had experienced beyond those gates.

It was calming for her in a way, looking out onto the long, gravel driveway, the surrounding trees that cradled the property and the last stretches of daylight poking out through the clouds, hitting the face of the house where she had nearly lost her life.

Swallowing hard, she proceeded toward the gate, pulling the glove from her left hand before then grasping one of the wrought-iron bars, the coolness of it sending shivers down her spine.

"Hermione?" someone suddenly asked, from about ten or twelve feet behind.

Glove slipping out from between her fingertips, Hermione rapidly turned around to find Daphne standing there, a look of complete and utter bewilderment on the pureblood girl's face.

Without sparing a moment Daphne asked, "What are you doing here?"

"I-I'm here to see Draco. What are you doing here?" Hermione asked back, an embarrassed flush suddenly warming her cheeks.

There was a soft, hesitant twitch between Daphne's lips before she parted them to speak. "I'm … also here to see Draco."

"Oh."

"Have you been here before?"

Tensing at the memory, Hermione shook her head. "Not as a guest."

"Right," Daphne gulped. "Well, it's good you're here. We've got loads to discuss."

"We do?" Hermione asked, her eyebrows bouncing up, lightly.

Daphne narrowed her eyes a moment, as though trying to decide whether Hermione was serious. "Shit," she realized, not a second later. "He hasn't told you, has he?"

"Told me what?"

Clearing the lump from her throat, the pureblood witch opted for the simplest approach. "You're better off hearing it from him. In fact that's probably why he invited both of us here to see him at the same time."

There was a sharp tug in Hermione's gut. "He didn't invite me."

"He didn't?" Daphne repeated, taken aback. "If he didn't invite you, why are you here?"

"I-I thought I would pop over in surprise," the Muggle-born explained, suddenly wishing she had just stayed at The Academy and waited patiently for him like she had originally intended. "He's going through a difficult time at home, so I figured maybe he could use a friend, but …"

"Speaking of," Daphne uttered, nodding to the figure that had emerged from the front door of the manor house.

Hermione sucked in, glancing back in the seconds after to find a tall, pale-haired wizard dressed entirely in black, his hands in the front pockets of his jeans and his shoulders up against the cold as he made his way down the gravel path, towards the gate beyond which they stood waiting.

For a split second she considered turning away, pretending as though she hadn't spend two hours traveling all the way there to see him. They had only gone out once after all. In fact the more she thought about it, the weirder she felt, having gone all the way down to the village and then on the Knight Bus, and then up towards the gate of his massive house as if it were at all normal to arrive uninvited and unannounced.

Only as he saw her from a distance and immediately quickened his steps, racing through the gate and wrapping his arms around her in a tight, warm embrace, did she snap out of it.

"Merlin, I'm so glad to see you," Draco confessed to her, directly into the curls of her hair. "Cold out here, isn't it? Let's get you inside."

Hermione blinked up at him in silence as he pulled away, the grey of his eyes quickly shifting to Daphne as she cleared her throat.

"I don't suppose you're going to tell your girlfriend the truth of what's going?" she inquired, in a manner that was more accusing than questioning.

There was a tightness in his throat. "Of course. I-I was going to Floo into the village and do just that later tonight, but now that she's here …" He glanced back at Hermione, the relief in his eyes clear as day. "I'll explain everything now."

"Good," Daphne remarked, passing through the gate without another word.

Twenty Minutes Later

It was smaller than she remembered.

The ceilings were high and the walls were covered in portraits, the large crystal light fixture that had come crashing down during the Skirmish, now fixed and hanging directly above Hermione's head as she entered the drawing room in slow, tentative movements. Setting aside the knot in her chest, she made her way to the exact place on the floor where Bellatrix had tortured her, the echo of her screams having traveled through every inch of the house, bouncing within the walls as her friends, Harry and Ron, were forced to listen down below.

She closed her eyes, allowing herself to sink deep into the memory for the first time in years.

For a moment she thought she'd heard Bellatrix come up from behind her, but as she opened her eyes and turned, she was relieved to find Draco instead.

Hovering in silence, the look in his eyes was calm, knowing. "I was wondering where you were."

"Sorry," Hermione apologized, tucking a curl behind her ear as she glanced down. "I just … it's been so long since … I thought perhaps if I return to this room, the memory of it won't be so …"

"Heavy."

She lifted her gaze at the sound of that, looking to him. "Do you remember it?"

His Adam's apple plunged the length of his throat as he nodded. "All of it."

"It must be difficult for you … living here now."

"For me?" he repeated, as though he'd never heard something so ridiculous in his life. "You were tortured within an inch of your life, Hermione. I-I only stood here and watched it like a complete and utter …"

She raced towards him, the echo of her steps filling the silence in the room as she then closed the gap between them, quickly and without a moment of thought. "Y-you were confined here just as we were," she uttered to him, speaking those words out loud for the first time. "To this house, to your upbringing, to the atrocities they forced on you when you were only … just a boy."

"You're too forgiving," Draco said to her, as though some small part of him would always carry the weight of his past.

"Only to those who deserve it."

With that he pulled away and kissed her, first on the forehead and then on the lips, unbothered by the portraits as they watched in a mix of shock and silence and bewilderment. Only then did the pair of them hear it. The voices echoing down the corridor, inching closer to the door. A wizard, a witch, and then a second, distinguishably younger sounding witch who had quickly popped over from around the corner and blocked their way, trapping them in conversation for only a moment.

Hermione gulped. "Is that —?"

"My parents," Draco interjected, in a hushed sort of panic. "I-I haven't told them about us. Sorry about this, but I'm going to need you to take the secret tunnel to my bedroom upstairs."

"The what to where?"

"I'll explain in a minute," he said to her, hurriedly leading her to the corner of the room where he then tapped a statue of a snake with the tip of his wand, revealing the entrance to a dark, narrow passageway. "Hurry!"

Chest pounding inside her robes, Hermione ducked into the tunnel, just barely catching Draco's lips on hers for a swift, goodbye kiss, before he then backed away, giving the statue another tap just as the door to the drawing room swung open to reveal his parents. Within seconds Hermione was immersed in darkness, the cold and unlit walls of the tunnel, making her stomach clench. On the other side she could hear Draco's parents question him, Daphne having distracted them for as long as she could before they grew suspicious.

On the one hand Hermione knew not to take it personally, but on the other hand she felt unclean.

The Muggle-born girl that the pureblood had no choice but to have hidden from his parents.

She supposed she might have done the same, had her Muggle parents come wandering in through those doors. It was no secret to them that Draco Malfoy had bullied her for years in school. Deep down she wondered how they were going to react to the news that she was now dating him. The same boy who had reduced her to tears not once, but countless times.

Taking a deep breath, she shoved those worries to the back of her mind and turned away from the statue, quietly making her way through the dark of the tunnel with only her wand for light before finally emerging from the secret door on the other side.

To her surprise, Daphne was already there, pacing in front of the full length mirror that appeared to block the entrance. "Thank, Merlin," she sighed, as Hermione came stumbling through. "That was close, wasn't it?"

Brushing the dirt from her robes, Hermione nodded. "I'd no idea they were home."

"Neither did I. Draco said they were going to be out all day," Daphne explained. "Anyway did he tell you about the engagement?"

"The what?" Hermione asked, her eyes wide as she glanced to Daphne.

"I'll … take that as a no."

"I'm so confused."

"You're not the only one," Daphne exhaled, plopping down on one of the chairs by the fireplace. "I was going to let Draco explain, but since he's busy, I guess I should bring you in what's going on before it's dumped on you out of nowhere like it was on me."

Hermione settled down on one of the other chairs, nodding. "Please do."

With a deep breath Daphne explained. "As I'm sure you're well aware, Malfoy Apothecary has seen brighter days," she began. "Lucius and Narcissa are at a loss for what to do. I-I feel for them … and apparently so do my parents."

"Right. Draco mentioned in one of his letters that your parents were invited to dinner recently."

The older Greengrass sister nodded. "Essentially they've agreed to … well, we don't quite know for sure, but … it seems that …" Sparing a second to gather her thoughts, she decided to just say it. "Both Draco and I have reason to believe that our parents have agreed to arrange us as part of a business deal of some sort."

In that same moment, Draco came walking in through the door, blinking up at the two witches as the weight of Daphne's words settled deeply in Hermione's chest.

"You told her?" Draco gathered, looking to Daphne as if she'd done the worst possible thing. "Y-you told her without me?"

She screwed her face in response. "What was I supposed to do? You shoved the girl into a tunnel without the slightest explanation as to what in Merlin's name is going on in this house!"

"I was going to tell her!"

"Go ahead! She's right here!"

"Well, there's no point in it now! You've already made sure of that!"

"None of this would even be happening if you had just been honest with your parents about your new relationship!"

"Oh, that's hilarious coming from —!"

Hermione swiftly rose to her feet, the raised voices in the room falling silent as both Daphne and Draco glanced to her, the anger in their eyes tapering away as she exhaled, deeply. "I should go."

Without wasting a second, Draco rushed over to her as she proceeded toward the mirror, to leave in exactly the same way she had come in. "Hermione, wait!" he blurted, cutting in front of her. "I can explain. We're not actually going to let them do this."

"I'll … wait outside," Daphne decided, hurriedly ducking out of the bedroom.

The quiet click of the door was the only sound that penetrated the silence between them as Draco waited for some indication that Hermione wasn't completely done with him.

Wordless for a moment, she eventually glanced up at him. "I know it's not your fault. I just … I-I need time to process everything. That's all."

"There's nothing to process. We'll think of something."

"Is that why you invited Daphne here?" she found herself asking. "To think of something?"

There was a flicker of surprise in Draco's eyes, as though he hadn't expected that sort of reaction from her. "Y-you do know there's nothing going on between us, don't you?"

Hermione stepped away, an embarrassed flush to her cheeks. "Of course I know that, I just …"

"You're worried something will happen."

"Maybe I am," she admitted, shrugging to him. "If you really think about it, she's essentially the Slytherin, pureblood version of me, isn't she? Surely you wouldn't feel the need to hide her away from your parents."

Draco stood there in disbelief for a couple of seconds, just staring at the brunette. "You're not … you're not serious, are you?"

"What if I am?"

Without a word he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her close, only tightening his hold on her as she tried to back away. "You've got a massive pair of bludgers to be standing here talking all this nonsense when you're wearing the ring that I left you."

Only then did she remember, hurriedly trying to pull it from her finger in the seconds after. "Take it back then if that's what you w —"

"I don't want the stupid ring," he interjected. "I want you."

She halted at the sound of that, looking to him to find that he was completely serious. "In what way?"

"In every way. Merlin's sake, Hermione, you're all I think about."

Glancing away, she felt her cheeks grow warm. "You're saying that now, but you fell out of love so quickly once before. What's to say the same won't happen again?" she asked, realizing only in the seconds after, which word she had used. "N-not that you love me, it's just —"

"Don't make me say it after an argument," Draco interjected, catching her eyes. "Because I will."

For a moment Hermione said nothing, waiting for him to smirk and to tell her that he was joking, but he didn't. In fact the longer she waited, the harder for her it was to deny the fact that she felt the same way.

"I'm sorry I hid you away," he apologized. "I just … panicked, I suppose."

"That's okay," she said to him, honestly. "It was my fault for coming here unannounced."

"I'm glad you're here, Hermione. So glad in fact, I've got no choice but to ask that you spend the night."

Blinking up at him in surprise, she waited for him to admit that he was joking, but again, he did no such thing.

"We'll leave together in the morning," he went on to suggest. "I'll give you pyjamas to sleep in, prepare a bath for you, take you down to the library, the garden if you'd like, make breakfast for you in the morning …"

Her bottom lip twitched as she tried not to smile. "Are you saying you know your way around a kitchen?"

Smirking, he gave her a quick kiss. "I'm saying I know my way around a few places."

"You certainly do," she chuckled, kissing him back for only a moment before pulling away. "Erm … Daphne's still waiting outside, isn't she?"

Gently clearing her throat from the other side of the door, the pureblood girl answered the question before Draco had so much as uttered a word.

A/N: Thanks for reading! Thoughts?